Winding Down

We spent one more day at Palo Verde just taking it easy, going on short walks and enjoying the nice weather.  Thursday morning we hitched up the car and headed to Norman, OK to visit our grandsons (and their parents) for the weekend before heading on home.  

Before we picked up the boys from school on Friday, Erin and I went shopping for Erin’s birthday gifts from me.  Later that afternoon Luca and Vincent got to open their birthday presents even though it was over two weeks since their birthdays.  Grandpa and I wanted to watch them open their gifts.  Saturday was busy with a parade in Norman and watching Luca and Vincent play soccer.   The boys are really enjoying their new home and big back yard.  We even explored the undeveloped areas around their home. We ate well as Erin is a really good cook, evidenced by the wonderful, home cooked fried chicken and mashed potatoes dinner on Sunday evening.

Today we drove home without any problems until we pulled into the State Fair campgrounds to dump our tanks.  We failed to take into consideration that Sedalia had gotten a lot of rain this past week and the beautiful green grass was hiding very soft, muddy ground.  We got stuck!  Two hours later the tow truck had us pulled out of the muck.  While John waited for the tow, I was enjoying dining with our son, daughter-in-law and our grandson and granddaughter.  Poor John seems to get the raw end of the deal at the end of this trip.

Its been a long 4 1/2 months of travel but we did enjoy some nice weather, beautiful country and making new friends. I’m looking forward to some time at home getting reacquainted with our friends and playing with the grandkids.

Lighthouse Trail

We drove the length of the Palo Duro Canyon State Park (The Grand Canyon of Texas) from the visitors center at the upper rim to the far south end of the park which is about 10 miles, checking other campgrounds, trailheads and points of interest. The entire canyon is 120 miles long and 600-800 feet deep.

Texas wanted the Indians moved out of their land so that cattle could be brought in. During the Red River War in 1874-75 the US Calvary attacked the first five encampments of the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne Indians and drove them down the canyon. They then returned to the encampments and burned them down.  They captured and killed 1100 of the Indian’s horses.  Facing a long winter without food or shelter, the Indians returned and were taken to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Charles Goodnight and John Adair moved in with their cattle, killing the bison to make room for the steers. It seems a very bad way to move civilization into this part of Texas.

The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp.) came in 1933 and built roads, buildings, shelters, bridges and trails. The park opened in 1934 and the CCC completed its work in 1937.

This is the view behind where we are standing in the previous picture.

This park’s iconic rock structure is The Lighthouse, a 312 foot tall formation created by wind and rain erosion. We hiked up a 2.8 mile long canyon to reach the base of the Lighthouse and then climbed up to the foundation for a closer view.  It was a fairly easy hike until we climbed the base. I slid on my bottom to get back down. We walked over 15,000 steps today!

Starting Homeward

We left Prescott Sunday morning and  headed out on a long journey eastward.  If we were in a vehicle that could travel 70 mph and get good gas milage we might have hopped onto I-40 East and made good time.  But we are in a beast of a motorhome that gets a whopping 6 mpg and we get that because we drive at 62 mph. So driving on an interstate does not really gain us any time whereas driving on two-lane roads can be shorter in distance without losing much time. And it is more interesting than the interstate.  

Our route took us through the mountains north of Phoenix and through the towns of Payson, Show Low, and Springerville in Arizona then in New Mexico we passed through Quemado, Pie Town and Magdalena before stopping for the night in Mountainair south of Albuquerque. Somewhere along this road we passed a VLA Telescope.  VLA means Very Large Array.  Not sure how it works or what they are looking for but it was impressive.  We spent the night on New Mexico's busiest rail line.  A freight train passed by every 15 minutes - all night!

Monday we continued through Vaughn, Ft. Sumner (where Billie the Kid is buried), and Clovis into Texas and the towns of Bovina, Hereford (Beef Capital of the World), and Canyon south of Amarillo, TX.  Just outside of Canyon is Palo Duro Canyon State Park whose claim to fame is the second largest canyon in the US aka the Grand Canyon of Texas.

We arrived late afternoon so had time to take a two mile stroll along the red cliffs and a small stream that runs through the park.  As we returned from our walk, we encountered a flock of jake turkeys browsing the grass between RVs.

Peavine and Iron King

We have had enough of the walking and hiking so today we got the bikes ready for a Rails to Trails ride on the Peavine and Iron King trails.  The rails were mostly runs to mining communities around Prescott but then they were bought by SF P&P Rail - Santa Fe, Phoenix and Prescott.  They were all closed in the early 1900’s.  I’m not sure when then lines were turned into walking and biking trails but they are pretty nice.  The Peavine parallels Watson Lake and the Granite Dells before going into the prairies.  We then back tracked and rode on the Iron King line, again into the grasslands but they left evidence of the mining runs this train made by leaving old ore cars and engines along the trail.  We rode almost 18 miles today.

We did some grocery shopping this morning and found ‘the world’s smallest’ Whole Foods store but they had dry-aged beef so that made up for no sushi bar.

Thumb Butte

John got to pick our hike today.  He chose Thumb Butte because it was only 1.75 miles and the most popular trail in the area.  He neglected to mention that the first .75 miles was straight up!  It felt like we climbed over 1000 feet but my RunKeeper says it was only 687 feet.  At the top we circled around Thumb Butte.  The Indians named it that because from the north it looked like a fist with a prominent thumb.  Settlers called it Sphinx Mountain because they thought it looked like an Egyptian Sphinx.  We just called it tall with great views of Prescott for 360°.

At the top of the trail there was a memorial for the firefighters who died at the Yarnel wildfire in June of 2013. Each firefighter had a flag with their picture and a brief description of them. Other people had laid items on the memorial such as toy firetrucks, t-shirts, coins and flowers.

Maybe the oddest looking house we have ever seen.

It was an easy jaunt down so I chose to add another mile to our hike by taking a longer route for a 3 mile hike.  The rest of the afternoon was quiet and we had a nice campfire after supper. It’s been a bit colder here than we would like. The temperature when we get up hovers around 32° but we have stayed nice and toasty even though we have no services. This is our favorite kind of camping, in the forest, nice and quiet.

GPS Goes Awry

We left California Wednesday morning and waited until we crossed into Arizona before putting gas in the RV. It’s almost a dollar cheaper in AZ for a savings of $50. We then trusted the GPS to guide us to Prescott where we planned to stay at a National Forest campground.  Before we realized what route the GPS led us to, it was too late to turn around.  In the RV  it is much better to take the shorter route by distance than the shorter route by time because we are more concerned about the number of miles we travel due to our horrible gas mileage. The signs on Route 89 said no trucks over 40 feet.  The RV is only 30 feet but you add the towed Jeep and we are longer than 40 feet.  But, by John’s rules, no turning around.  It was a very steep and winding mountain road with beautiful scenery.  We made it just fine and landed in a quaint, forest campground.

Today we took advantage of the hiking trail that begins and ends at our campsite.  It was supposed to be about a four mile hike and we would be back in time for lunch at the RV.  It was a cool but sunny day as we walked through quiet, aromatic pine forests.  The route was not too steep and the signage was pretty good so we didn’t think we would get lost.  The problem began when we took a wrong path and missed a sign.  Forty-five minutes later we determined that we were not where we wanted to be. We broke John’s rule about not turning around and we turned around, found the correct path and headed back to the RV.  We only added a mile and a half to our hike for a 5.3 mile walk.  Whew!  I’m tired!

After naps, we explored Prescott by driving around and then touring the historic town square & whiskey row, doing a little bit of shopping and adding more steps to our poor, achy feet.

Rainbow Basin

It has been almost two months since we have set the RV up with no one on either side of us.  This is a very nice campground out in the middle of nowhere and very few people using it.  Of the 25 spaces available there are maybe six campers.

That’s our RV & Jeep lower right.

It was pretty cold when we got up this morning so our hike got put off until the sun warmed us up some despite the wind.  We drove out on the Rainbow Loop through narrow, tight curves at the bottom of the canyon.  Then we stopped so we could hike up a canyon.  We actually hiked up two canyons, both of which had rockfalls at the end blocking our path.  If a younger person had hiked this they might have been able to climb the rocks and continue on, but not us old fogies.  There is something awe inspiring about being at the bottom of a canyon with tall, steep walls and trusting that nothing will fall down on top of you.

This afternoon, I convinced John to hike Owl Canyon the opposite direction, then climbing out and up to the top of the ridge that overlooks our campground.  This could have been a long hike with fantastic vistas except that 30+ mph winds felt like they were going to blow us off the top and tumble us down to the bottom of the canyon.  

The wind should let up sometime during the night, we hope!

Bad Weather Coming

It has been so long since it has rained in Southern California that the prospect of the wet stuff has everyone in a tizzy.  And it is not supposed to rain until Tuesday with the uproar starting on Sunday!

As it is Easter, I attended church in Atascadero and was warmly welcomed at the United Methodist Church.  Since I have had enough of the wine tasting and I need some time to myself, I threw John out of the RV!  He went off to taste some more wines while I did the laundry, washed the floor, and took a nap.  When he returned after tasting only at Justine Vineyards and finding the other three wineries closed, I left him at home while I grocery shopped.  It was good to be separated for an afternoon.

Monday morning, we took the rain and wind warnings seriously and decided not to go to Sequoia National Park (where they were predicting 3-6 inches of snow!) and instead found a park in the Mojave Desert near the town of Mojave, outside of Andrews AFB. We won’t escape the wind but at least it won’t snow here!

The park is in Rainbow Basin Natural Landmark and is run by BLM.  Our RV is overlooking Owl Canyon with high cliffs and rolling hills all around us. We took a short hike up Owl Canyon but forgot the camera!  It’s cold enough and so windy that we will have no campfire.

Yummy Wine!

We tasted a lot of wine these last two days without going to too many wineries.  Our day would start off slow until about 10:30 or so and then we would head out to the wineries as they don’t open until 11 am or later.  And, I as I mentioned before, we try not to go to more than three wineries in one day. 

Friday found us as Booker Wines, Nicora Wine, and Epoch Estates Wines. Each of these were wineries that John had researched from Wine Spectator and produced wines from grapes we were interested in tasting. By the way, each of these wineries were low production, boutique wineries and most of them used grapes from their own estates.

Our first stop at Booker was interesting as they had good wines but our visit with a couple who are regulars to this winery was more memorable.  Matt and Wendy found our story of RV travels very interesting and as we talked we discovered that we had similar tastes in wines.  They highly recommended we visit McPrice Myers and told us to tell them who had sent us there.  We also enjoyed the wine at Booker and bought 4 bottles.

After lunch at Thomas Hill Organics we met Nick at Nicora’s tasting room in the industrial park. He started out following his father’s footsteps in construction in but then struck out on his own after college where he started working at a winery learning the trade from the ground up.  Along the way he discovered that he has a good palate for wine and started making his own.  He gets his grapes from several vineyards in the valley and hopes to one day grown his own.  We really enjoyed the four wines that we tasted and bought half of a case.

Our last stop on Friday was at Epoch Estates.  They have a beautiful tasting room but we did not find any wines we liked enough to buy.

Saturday morning we arrived at McPrice Myers/Barrel 27 early.  We were the only ones there to taste as has been the case with most of the other wineries.  A lady about our age, Pat, was training a young man so she waited on us to show him the ropes.  She recognized that we knew what we liked and knew how to taste wines.  What transpired after that was an almost three hour wine tasting of over 15 wines from their cellar.  She started with the 2011 and 2012 then started pulling from their library and we tasted wines from 2008 and 2009.  We tasted Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Zinfandel, blends with those grapes plus Cabernets and Tempranillos.  We tasted wines that no one outside the company has tasted!  We enjoyed Pat and she, obviously, enjoyed us.  We had lunch on their patio and she gave us two glasses of wine to have with our sandwiches.  Of course, we bought a LOT of wine from them.  We hope we like them just as much when we get home!

Alta Colina Winery was their next door neighbor so we stopped there and John like one of their wines which we purchased.  We drove by Turley’s Winery but since we already have ordered some of their wines, we didn’t find any we wanted to taste.

We had dinner at El Cortile Ristorante, an Italian restaurant which everyone we visited with recommended.  And they were correct - fabulous meal!

Paso Robles Wine Region

We drove the short distance from Solvang to Paso Robles yesterday morning, stopping to do some shopping along the way.  We thought of trying to do some wine tasting after we arrived but John needed to do some research first because there are just too many wineries in this area to risk finding a good wine by random tastings. We did enjoy a quick walk around the downtown, checking out the restaurants, window shopping and enjoying the afternoon sun.

John made a few calls early this morning to see if we could taste some wines by appointment rather than picking open tasting rooms.  We were hoping for more personalized descriptions of the wines, information about their winery productions and about their vintner.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got appointments easily and definitely enjoyed the private tastings.

This morning we visited Terry Hoage Winery and enjoyed their selections of wines, tasting not only their most recent releases but some from their library of older wines.  Of course we bought a case to be shipped home.

Next was Law Estates.  Oh my, their facility was huge and very modern. They have over 55 acres of vines but have only produced two vintages, 2010 and 2011.  They started planting in 2007 and after only 3 ‘leafings’ they were able to bottle their first wine.  Since this is such a new winery, we didn’t expect much but were pleasantly surprised.  We were ushered into a large, lovely room on the second floor with windows showing off the view of the vineyard. A table was set with glasses to taste four wines for us and another couple.  This tasting was a side-by-side tasting so that we could taste all four wines next to each other and do a real comparison.  Of course, we bought some wine from them.

Denner Winery was our last stop as any more than that and our palates go numb.  This place was fairly new and set up for lots of visitors but there were only 8 of us at this time.  We got to sit outdoors and they served us at our table while we took in the postcard view across the way.  We tried really hard to like their wines, but could not find one we wanted to buy.